[Glenhuon (Bill)]

I had those same problems with one of those 'scopes (Just sold it). You are correct that the lens needs to be removed from the focuser but you will also find that the focus tube is very sloppy in the barrel. I had to shim mine with .5 mm brass shim before I could do any good. When you start the alignment bring the focus tube out about 5 or 6 mm from the barrel, I found if I left it all the way in it moved and threw everything out when I tried to focus an eyepeice later.Start with the cheshire and rack the focus tube out untill the end of the tube is out of view. Adjust the secondary mirror until you can see all 3 Primary mirror clips at the edge of the field. With the laser in place adjust the secondary until the dot is dead centre of the main mirror, check to make sure you can still see all 3 mirror clips before continuing. If all is well you can now adjust the primary so the laser dot disappears back up the hole from whence it came. Once adjusted the secondary should not need touching for a long time and tweaking the primary is pretty easy after a bit of practice.
When you have finished screw the lens back in and give it a try. I had a about 3 goes before it was reasonably good.

Best of Luck
Bill